Naruto Desription
by Target706
Summary: This is a description pertaining the entailment of Naruto
**A/N: I do not own Naruto and this story is just a quick, or long, entailment of what Naruto is i will be doing more stories soon on Naruto in a week or so depending on if i acctualy feel like doing it and not being lazy or anything**

Naruto is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, an adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and dreams to become the Hokage, the

ninja in his village who is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot manga by Kishimoto that was published in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.

Naruto was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from the 43rd issue of 1999 to the 50th issue of 2014, with the chapters collected into seventy-two tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. The manga was later adapted

into a television anime, which was produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo and other TX Network stations on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted 220 episodes,

while Naruto: Shippuden, a sequel to the original series, has been airing since February 15, 2007. In addition to the anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed eleven movies and several original video animations. Other

types of merchandise include light novels, video games, and trading cards developed by several companies.

Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz serialized Naruto in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, as well as publishing the individual volumes. The anime series began

airing in the United States and Canada in 2005, and later in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2006 and 2007, respectively. The films, as well as most OVAs from the series, have also been released by Viz, with the

first film premiering in cinemas. Naruto: Shippuden was first released by Viz in North America in September 2009, started broadcast on Disney XD in October of the same year and on Adult Swim's Toonami block in

January 2014. Viz Media began streaming both series on their streaming service Neon Alley in December 2012.

As of October 2015, the manga has sold over 220 million copies worldwide, making it the third best-selling manga series in history. The manga is also available in 35 countries outside Japan. It has also become one of

North American publisher Viz Media's best-selling manga series. Their English adaptation of the series has appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 7 won the Quill Award in 2006. Reviewers of the

series have praised the balance between fighting and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities, but have criticized it for using standard shōnen manga plot elements.

 _ **Plot:**_

A powerful fox known as the Nine-Tails attacks the ninja village Konoha. In response, the leader of Konoha – the Fourth Hokage – seals the fox inside his newborn son Naruto Uzumaki at the cost of his life. As a child,

Naruto is isolated from the Konoha community, who regards him as if he was the Nine-Tails itself. A decree made by the current Hokage, the Third Hokage, forbids anyone mentioning the Nine-Tails to anyone else.

Twelve years later, renegade ninja Mizuki reveals the truth to Naruto before being defeated by him with the Shadow Clone Jutsu technique, earning the respect of his teacher Iruka Umino. Shortly after, Naruto becomes

a ninja and is assigned alongside Sasuke Uchiha, whom he often competes against, and Sakura Haruno, whom he has a crush on, to form a three-person team named Team 7 under an experienced sensei, the elite

ninja Kakashi Hatake. Like all the ninja teams from every village, Team 7 is charged with completing missions requested by villagers, ranging from doing chores, and being bodyguards or executing assassinations.

After several missions, most notably one to the Land of Waves, Kakashi allows Team 7 to participate in a ninja exam in which they can advance to a higher rank, and thus take part in more difficult missions. During the

exams, Orochimaru, a top-wanted criminal, invades Konoha and kills the Third Hokage in an act of revenge. This forces one of the three legendary ninja, Jiraiya, to search with Naruto for Tsunade, who has been

nominated to become the Fifth Hokage. During the search, it is revealed that Orochimaru desires to acquire Sasuke due to his powerful genetic heritage, the Sharingan. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the

strength needed to kill his older brother Itachi, who destroyed their clan, Sasuke eventually joins him after a humiliating defeat at his brother's hands. Tsunade sends a group of ninja including Naruto to retrieve

Sasuke, but Naruto is unable to bring him back to the village. Naruto and Sakura do not give up on Sasuke, however, and the former leaves Konoha to train under Jiraiya's tutelage in order to prepare himself for the

next time he encounters Sasuke, while the latter becomes Tsunade's apprentice.

Two and a half years later, Naruto returns from his training with Jiraiya, and the criminal organization called Akatsuki, from which Itachi is a member, starts kidnapping the hosts of the nine powerful Tailed Beasts,

including the Nine-Tails sealed inside of Naruto, to extract them. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members and search for their teammate Sasuke. Akatsuki is successful in

capturing seven of those creatures whose hosts are killed in the process, except for Gaara, the host of the One-Tail whose life is saved in time by Naruto and his comrades. In the meantime, Sasuke betrays Orochimaru

and faces Itachi to take revenge. After Itachi dies in battle, Sasuke learns from the Akatsuki founder Tobi that Itachi was ordered by Konoha's superiors to destroy his clan to prevent a coup d'état to which he accepted

with the condition of allowing Sasuke to be spared. Saddened with this revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to kill Konoha's superiors who orchestrated the Uchihas' elimination and destroy Konoha to exact

revenge. Meanwhile, as several Akatsuki members are defeated by Konoha ninjas, their figurehead leader, Nagato, kills Jiraiya and devastates Konoha. However, Naruto defeats and redeems him, reviving those who

perished and gaining the village's respect and admiration as a result.

With Nagato's eventual death, Tobi, while disguised as one of Konoha's founding fathers Madara Uchiha, announces that he wants to obtain all nine of the tailed beasts in order to perform an illusion powerful enough to

control all of humanity, in an effort to create supposedly world peace. The leaders of the five ninja villages refuse to aid him and instead join forces to confront Tobi and his allies. This results in a fourth great ninja war

between the unified armies of the Five Great Countries and Akatsuki's forces of zombie-like ninjas. Naruto, and Killer Bee, the host of the Eight-Tails, head for the battlefield refusing to sit back as instructed. During the

conflict, it is revealed that Tobi is actually Obito Uchiha, Kakashi's former teammate who was thought to be dead, but he was saved by the real Madara and has been working with him ever since. As Sasuke learns the

history of Konoha, including the circumstances that led to his clan's downfall, he decides to protect the village and rejoins Naruto and Sakura to stop Madara and Obito's plans, which unleash the Ten-Tails. However,

Madara's body ends up possessed by Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, an ancient princess who intends to subdue all of mankind, and a reformed Obito sacrifices himself to help Team 7 stop her. Once Kaguya is sealed, Madara dies as

well, but Sasuke takes advantage of the situation and takes control all the Tailed Beasts to realize his true goal of ending the current village system. Naruto confronts Sasuke to dissuade him, and after they almost kill

each other in a final battle, Sasuke admits defeat and reforms. After the war, Kakashi is chosen to become the Sixth Hokage and pardons Sasuke of his crimes. Years later, Kakashi steps down and Naruto becomes the

Seventh Hokage, raising the next generation.

 _ **Production:**_

Masashi Kishimoto first created a one-shot of Naruto for the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump. Despite its high positive results in the reader poll, Kishimoto thought " art stinks and the story's a mess!" Kishimoto was

originally working on Karakuri for the Hop Step Award when, unsatisfied by the rough drafts, he decided to work on something different, which later formed into the manga series Naruto. Kishimoto has expressed

concerns that the use of chakras and hand signs makes Naruto too Japanese, but still believes it to be an enjoyable read. When asked about what was Narutos main theme during Part I, Kishimoto answered that it is

how people accept each other citing Naruto's development across the series. Kishimoto said that since he was unable to focus on romance during Part I, he was to emphasize it more in Part II, the part of the manga

beginning with volume 28, despite finding it difficult.

When originally creating the Naruto story, Kishimoto looked to other shōnen manga as influences for his work, although he attempted to make his characters as unique as possible. He based it on Japanese culture. The

separation of the characters into different teams was intended to give each group a specific flavor. Kishimoto wished for each member to be "extreme", having a high amount of aptitude in one given attribute yet be

talentless in another." The insertion of villains into the story was largely to have them act as a counterpoint to the characters' moral values. Kishimoto has stated that this focus on illustrating the difference in values is

central to his creation of villains to the point that, "I don't really think about them in combat." When drawing the characters, Kishimoto consistently follows a five-step process: concept and rough sketch, drafting,

inking, shading, and coloring. These steps are followed when he is drawing the actual manga and making the color illustrations that commonly adorn the cover of tankōbon, the cover of Weekly Shōnen Jump, or other

media, but the toolkit he utilizes occasionally changes. For instance, he utilized an airbrush for one illustration for a Weekly Shōnen Jump cover, but decided not to use it for future drawings largely due to the cleanup

required. For Part II, Kishimoto said that he attempted to not "overdo the typical manga style" by not including "too much deformation" and keeping the panel layouts to make it easy for the reader to follow the plot.

Kishomoto said his drawing style changed from "the classic manga look to something a bit more realistic."

Kishimoto added that, as Naruto takes place in a "Japanese fantasy world", he has set certain rules, in a systematic way so that he could easily "convey the story". Kishimoto wanted to "draw on" the Chinese zodiac

tradition, which had a long-standing presence in Japan; the zodiac hand signs originate from this. When Kishimoto was creating the setting of the Naruto manga, he initially concentrated on the designs for village of

Konohagakure, the primary setting of the series. Kishimoto asserts that his design for Konohagakure was created "pretty spontaneously without much thought", but admits that the scenery is based on his home in the

Okayama prefecture in Japan. Without a specific time period, Kishimoto included modern elements in the series such as convenience stores, but specifically excluded projectile weapons and vehicles from the storyline.

For reference materials, Kishimoto performs his own research into Japanese culture and alludes to it in his work. Regarding technology Kishimoto said that Naruto would not have any firearms. He said he may include

automobiles, aircraft and "low-processing" computers; Kishimoto specified the computers would "maybe" be eight-bit and that they would "definitely not" be sixteen-bit.

Regarding the series' length, Kishimoto showed surprise when the series reached its tenth volume as a result of its popularity. He has also stated at the time that he already had a visual idea of the last chapter of the

series, including the text and the story. However, he noted that it could take a long time to end the series since "there are still so many things that need to be resolved."

 _ **Media:**_

 _ **Manga:**_

Naruto premiered in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on September 21, 1999, and ended on November 10, 2014. The first 238 chapters are known as Part I, and constitute the first part of the Naruto

storyline. Manga chapters 239 to 244 comprise a gaiden series focusing on the background of the character Kakashi Hatake. The rest of the manga chapters 245 to 700 belongs to Part II, which continues the storyline

after a two-and-a-half year time gap. 72 tankōbon were released by Shueisha in Japan, with the first twenty-seven tankōbon containing Part I, and every subsequent one belonging to Part II. The first tankōbon was

released on March 3, 2000. In addition, several tankōbon, each containing ani-manga based one of the Naruto movies, have been released by Shueisha. In Japanese, Shueisha has also released the series for cell-phone

download on their website Shueisha Manga Capsule. A spin-off comedy manga by Kenji Taira, titled and focusing on the character Rock Lee, ran in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump magazine from December 3, 2010 to July 4,

2014\. Taira also launched on October 3, 2014, which runs in the same magazine and centers on the group Taka.

Naruto is serialized in North America by Viz Media in their manga anthology magazine Shonen Jump, with the first chapter of the English adaptation published in the January 2003 issue. To compensate for the gap

between the Japanese and English adaptations of the manga, Viz implemented its "Naruto Nation" campaign, where it released three volumes a month in the last four months of 2007 in order to close said gap. Cammie

Allen, Viz's product manager, commented that, their main reason for the schedule was to catch up to the Japanese release schedule to give their readers a similar experience to that of Japanese readers. Viz has

released the manga in English on 72 volumes as of October 6, 2015. In addition, Viz Media released all twenty-seven volumes of Part I in a boxed set, thus constituting the entirety of the Naruto storyline before Part II

on November 13, 2007. On May 3, 2011, Viz started collecting the series in an omnibus format in which each volume contains three from the original format.

Simultaneous with the release of the final chapter of the series, a miniseries centered on the main characters' children was announced. Titled, the series began serialization in both the Japanese and English editions of

Weekly Shōnen Jump on April 27, 2015, and ended after ten chapters on July 6, 2015.

On December 19, 2015, it was announced that a monthly sequel series titled would run in both the Japanese and English editions of Weekly Shōnen Jump beginning in Spring 2016. The new series will be illustrated by

Mikio Ikemoto and written by Ukyo Kodachi with supervision from series creator Masashi Kishimoto. Ikemoto was Kishimoto's chief assistant during the entire run the original Naruto series, and Kodachi was his writing

partner for the Boruto: Naruto the Movie film screenplay. The monthly series will be preceded by a one-shot written and illustrated by Kishimoto.

 _ **Naruto anime:**_

Directed by Hayato Date and produced by Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo, the Naruto anime adaptation premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo October 3, 2002, and ran for 220 episodes until its conclusion on February 8, 2007.

The first 135 episodes are adapted from the first twenty-seven volumes of the manga, while the remaining eighty episodes are original episodes that utilize plot elements not seen in the original manga. Beginning on

April 29, 2009, the original Naruto anime began a rerun on Wednesdays and Thursdays . It was remastered in HD, with new 2D and 3D effects, under the name Naruto: . It included never before scenes and many non-

canon materials was cut to make it more faithful to the original manga. In addition, it contains openings and endings different from the original series.

Episodes from the series have been published in DVD. The first DVD series has been the only one to be collected in VHS format. There are a total of five series, with each of the including four episodes per volume. The

series has also been collected in a series of three DVD boxes during 2009. The newest DVD series is Naruto The Best Scene which collects scenes from the first 135 episodes from the anime.

Viz licensed the anime series for broadcast and distribution in the Region 1 market. The English adaptation of the anime began airing on September 10, 2005 and finished on January 31, 2009, with 209 episodes aired.

The episodes have been shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami, YTV's Bionix and Jetix's programming blocks. Beginning on March 28, 2006, Viz released the series on DVD. While the first 26 volumes contain four

episodes, since DVD volumes have five episodes. Uncut editions are compiled in DVD Box Sets, each containing 12-15 episodes, with some variation based around story arcs. In the American broadcast, references to

alcohol, Japanese culture, sexual innuendo, and the appearance of blood and death were sometimes reduced for the broadcast, but left in, in the DVD editions. Other networks make additional content edits apart from

the edits done by Cartoon Network, such as Jetix's stricter censoring of blood, language, smoking and the like. The series has also been licensed to the websites Hulu, Joost, and Crunchyroll, which air episodes online

with the original Japanese audio tracks and English subtitles. The last Naruto episode aired on YTV's Bionix block on December 6, 2009 at 12:30am ET.

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is the ongoing sequel to the original Naruto anime and covers the Naruto manga from volume twenty-eight on. The TV adaptation of Naruto: Shippuden debuted in Japan on February 15, 2007 on TV Tokyo. It is

developed by Studio Pierrot and directed by Hayato Date. ABS-CBN is the first TV network outside Japan to broadcast Naruto: Shippuden; it aired the first 40 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, running the show through

March 19, 2008. On January 8, 2009, TV Tokyo began broadcasting new episodes via internet streaming directly to monthly subscribers. Each streamed episode is made available online within an hour of its Japanese

premiere and includes English subtitles. Viz began streaming English subtitled episodes on January 2, 2009, on its official website for the series. The uploaded episodes include both previously released episodes and the

new episodes from Japan.

In North America, the English dub of Naruto: Shippuden aired weekly on Disney XD from October 28, 2009 to October 8, 2011. Like the first series, several content edits were made during the broadcast. Episodes 98

onward premiered uncut on Neon Alley beginning December 29, 2012. On November 6, 2013, Adult Swim announced that they will be airing the English dub uncut on Toonami starting in January 2014. Beginning from

the first episode, Shippuden premiered on January 5, 2014.

The series is being released to Region 2 DVD in Japan with four or five episodes per disc. There are currently four series of DVD releases divided by story arc. There is also a special feature included with the seventh

Naruto: Shippuden compilation DVD based on the second ending of the series called Hurricane! "Konoha Academy" Chronicles. Besides the regular DVD series, on December 16, 2009 was released featuring episodes

119-120 which are set during Kakashi Hatake's childhood.

The first North American DVD of the series was released on September 29, 2009. Only the first fifty-three episodes were collected in this format that ended with the 12th volume released on August 10, 2010. Following

this, episodes have been released as part of DVD boxes that started release on January 26, 2010, with the first season. In the United Kingdom, the series is licensed by Manga Entertainment who released the first DVD

collection on June 14, 2010.

 _ **Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals:**_

In February 2012, Shueisha announced that the spin-off manga Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden would receive an anime adaptation. Produced by Studio Pierrot, the series premiered in TV Tokyo on April 3,

2012\. Crunchyroll simulcasted the series' premiere in their website and will also stream its following episodes.

 _ **Original video animations:**_

There are five Naruto original video animations . The first two, Find the Crimson Four-Leaf Clover! and Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village!, were aired at the Shōnen Jump Jump Festa 2003 and Jump Festa 2004,

respectively, and were later released on DVD in Australia under the title "Naruto Jump Festa Collection". The English localization of the second OVA was released on DVD by Viz on May 22, 2007 in USA under the title

"Naruto - The Lost Story". The third OVA, Konoha Annual Sports Festival, is a short video released with the first Naruto movie. In North America, the OVA was included in the "Deluxe Edition" DVD from the first film. The

fourth OVA, Finally a clash! Jonin VS Genin! Indiscriminate grand melee tournament meeting!, was released on a bonus disc with the Japanese edition of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 video game for the PlayStation 2.

The fifth OVA,, was featured at the Jump Festa 2010. It is focused in Team 7 after their encounter with Zabuza and Haku. A short OVA was also included within the DVD "Naruto x UT Original DVD" released on January

1, 2011 as promoted by UNIQLO.

 _ **Films:**_

The series has also led to ten films; with the first three canonically situated during the first anime series, and the following six non-canonically from Naruto: Shippūden. The first film, Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow,

was released on August 21, 2004 in Japan. It tells how Team 7 is dispatched to the Land of Snow to protect the actors during the shooting of the new Princess Fuun movie, to whom Naruto became a fan. As a bonus,

the short original video animation Konoha Annual Sports Festival was included with the Japanese release of the film. It premiered on June 6, 2007 in the United States. It was followed by Legend of the Stone of Gelel,

which was released in theaters in Japan on August 6, 2005. The film involves Naruto, Shikamaru and Sakura during a ninja mission in which they are involved in a war between the Sunagakure village and a large

number of armored warriors. Unlike its predecessor, Legend of the Stone of Gelel did not see a theatrical release in the United States, and was direct-to-video instead. It aired on Cartoon Network on July 26, 2008 and

then was released to DVD July 29, 2008. The third film, Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom, was originally released on August 5, 2006. It shows how Naruto, Sakura, Lee and Kakashi are assigned to protect the

future prince of the Land of Moon, Hikaru Tsuki. The English dub of the movie aired on Cartoon Network and was released to DVD on November 11, 2008. On July 3, 2008, Sony released a Japanese DVD Box containing

the first three movies.

The series' fourth film, Naruto Shippuden the Movie, was released on August 4, 2007, and chronicles Naruto's assignment to protect the priest Shion who starts having visions of his death. The fifth film, Naruto

Shippuden the Movie: Bonds, was released on August 2, 2008. It tells how ninja from the Sky Country attack Konoha and to stop them, Naruto and Sasuke join forces although the latter has already left two years ago.

The next film is Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Will of Fire, which premiered in Japan on August 1, 2009, and tells the story of Team Kakashi working together to stop Kakashi from sacrificing himself to stop a world

war. Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower followed it in Japan on July 31, 2010, and tells the story of Naruto getting sent 20 years into the past and exploring a mystical tower for a rogue ninja with the Fourth

Hokage. Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison was released on July 30, 2011, and tells the story of Naruto getting framed for the attempted murder of the Raikage and his subsequent attempts to break out of the prison while

discovering its secrets. A new movie, Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie, which details Naruto and Sakura getting sent to an alternate universe by Tobi and discovering the meaning of companionship and parenthood, was

released on July 28, 2012.

On December 6, 2014, a new movie, The Last: Naruto the Movie, was released. Canonical to the franchise, the film tells the story of Naruto and his companions two years after Chapter 699 of the manga trying to stop

the moon from colliding with Earth; it also explains some loose ends involving the series' mythology and details on Naruto's love life. As with Road to Ninja, the script and character designs were created by Masashi

Kishimoto. A new canon film, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, was released in August 2015, and focus on the children of the main characters.

It was announced that Lionsgate are developing a live action Naruto with Avi Arad producing through his production company Arad Productions and Michael Gracey directing, while Erik Feig, Geoff Shaveitz and Kelly

O'Malley will oversee production. The studio are also in negotiations with Masashi Kishimoto for the films rights.

 _ **Music:**_

The Naruto soundtracks were composed and arranged by Toshio Masuda. The first, titled Naruto Original Soundtrack, was released on April 3, 2003, and contained 22 tracks that appeared during the first season of the

anime. The second, called Naruto Original Soundtrack II was released on March 18, 2004 and contained nineteen tracks. The third, called Naruto Original Soundtrack III was released on April 27, 2005 and contained

twenty-three tracks.

A series of two soundtracks containing all the opening and ending themes of the series, titled Naruto: Best Hit Collection and Naruto: Best Hit Collection II were released on November 17, 2004 and August 2, 2006,

respectively. Of all tracks of the series, eight were selected and released as a CD called Naruto in Rock -The Very Best Hit Collection Instrumental Version- that was released on December 19, 2007. Each of the three

movies of the first anime series has a soundtrack that was released near its release date. On October 12, 2011, a CD collecting the themes from Naruto Shōnen Hen was also released. Various Drama CD series have

also been released in which the voice actors play original episodes.

The soundtracks of Naruto: Shippuden have been produced by Yasuharu Takanashi. Although in a few Shippuden episodes did feature tracks from the first series. The first, Naruto Shippūden Original Soundtrack was

released on December 9, 2007. The second CD, Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack II, was published on December 16, 2009. Naruto All Stars was released on July 23, 2008 and consists of ten original Naruto songs

remixed and sung by characters from the series. Ten themes from the two series were also collected in the DVD box Naruto Super Hits 2006-2008 released on July 23, 2008. Each of the films from the sequel also had

their soundtracks, with the first released on August 1, 2007.

 _ **Video games:**_

Naruto video games have appeared on various consoles from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Most of them are fighting games in which the player controls one of a select few characters directly based upon their

counterparts in the Naruto anime and manga. The player pits their character against another character controlled by the game's AI or by another player, depending on the mode that the player is in. The objective is to

reduce the opponent's health to zero using basic attacks and special techniques unique to each character that are derived from techniques they use in the Naruto anime or manga. The very first Naruto video game was

Naruto: Konoha Ninpōchō, which was released in Japan on March 27, 2003, for the WonderSwan Color. Most Naruto video games have been released only in Japan. The first games released outside Japan were the

Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen series and the Naruto: Saikyou Ninja Daikesshu series, released in North America under the titles of Naruto: Clash of Ninja and Naruto: Ninja Council. In January 2012, Namco Bandai

announced that they have sold 10 million Naruto games worldwide.

 _ **Novels:**_

Sixteen Naruto light novels, with first nine of them written by Masatoshi Kusakabe, have been published in Japan by Shueisha under the JUMP j BOOKS imprint, while the first two were released in English in North

America by Viz. The first,, retells Team 7's mission in which they encounter the assassins Zabuza and Haku. It was released on December 16, 2002 in Japan and November 21, 2006 in North America. The second novel,

based on the 2nd original video animation of the anime, was published on December 15, 2003 in Japan and October 16, 2007 in the United States. The series' tenth novel, titled and written by Akira Higashiyama, was

published on August 4, 2009. It is presented as the in-universe novel written by Naruto's master Jiraiya, and follows the adventures of a fictional shinobi named Naruto Musasabi, who served as Naruto's namesake.

Novelizations of the first seven, ninth and the tenth Naruto films, as well as the original novel which adapted into the eighth Naruto film, have also been published in Japan. which is an imprint designed for students

from elementary school and junior high.

Viz has also published new novels called Chapter Books written by Tracey West, and with illustrations from the manga. Unlike the series, the novels are aimed to children aged 7 to 10 years old. The first two novels

were released on October 7, 2008 and 16 novels have been published but the 17th book had been cancelled.

 _ **Trading card game:**_

is a collectible card game based around the Naruto series. Produced by Bandai, the game was first introduced in Japan in February 2003. Bandai began releasing the game in English in North America in April 2006. The

game is played between two players requiring players use a customized deck of fifty cards from the set, a game mat, an item to act as a "turn marker" for noting whose turn it is, and a "Ninja Blade Coin" which is

primarily used to flip for making decisions. In order to win, a player must either earn ten "battle rewards" through their actions in the game, or they must cause the other player to exhaust their deck.

The cards are released in named sets, called "series" in the form of four different 50-card preconstructed box sets. By October 2006, seventeen series had been released in Japan spanning 417 unique cards.

 _ **Art and guidebooks:**_

Several supplementary books of the Naruto series have been released. An artbook named The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki contains illustration from the Part I manga and was released in both Japan and the United States.

For the Part II manga, an interactive book called PAINT JUMP: Art of Naruto was released by Shueisha on April 4, 2008. The latest artbook was published on July 3, 2009 under the name of Naruto with its English

version released on October 26, 2010.

A series of guidebooks for the Part I called and were released only in Japan focusing on Part I. The third databook, was released on September 4, 2008, and adapted Part II from the manga. These books contain

character profiles, Jutsu guides and drafts made by Kishimoto. The third book was released by Viz on January 10, 2012. For the anime, a series of guidebook called Naruto anime profiles were also released. These books

contain information about the production of the anime episodes and explanation of the characters designs. On October 4, 2002, it was released a manga fanbook named . Viz published it in North America on February

19, 2008 under the name of Naruto: The Official Fanbook. Another fanbook was released to conmemmorate the series' 10th anniversary. It includes illustrations of Naruto Uzumaki by other manga artists, a novel,

Kishimoto's one-shot named Karakuri and an interview between Kishimoto and Yoshihiro Togashi.

 _ **Reception:**_

 _ **Manga:**_

Naruto has been well received in both Japan and the United States. As of 2007, the manga had over 71 million copies in circulation in Japan, while in 2008 this increased to 89 million. In April 2010, Shueisha announced

that Naruto had 100.4 million copies in print, becoming the publisher's fifth manga series to have over a 100 million in circulation. In 2011 its sales increased to over 113 million copies, and by 2013 it had sold over 130

million, becoming Shueisha's fourth best-selling manga series. During 2008, volume 43 sold 1.1 million copies becoming the 9th best-selling comic from Japan. Volumes 41, 42 and 44 also ranked within the top 20, but

had smaller sold copies. In total, the manga sold 4.2 million copies in Japan during 2008, making it the second best-selling series of the year. In the first half of 2009, it ranked as the third best-selling manga in Japan,

having sold 3.4 million copies. That year, volume 45 ranked 5th with 1.1 million sold copies, while volume 46 ranked 9th, having sold 864,708 copies and volume 44 at 40th place.

The Naruto manga series has become one of Viz Media's top properties, accounting for nearly 10% of all manga sales in 2006. ICv2 has listed it as the top manga property in North America several times. The seventh

volume of Viz's release became the first manga to win a Quill Award when it claimed the award for "Best Graphic Novel" in 2006. The manga also appeared in the USA Today Booklist with volume 11 holding the title of

the highest ranked manga series on the list, until it was surpassed by volume 28, which claimed the 17th rank in its first week of release in March 2008. Volume 28 also had one of the biggest debut weeks of any

manga in years, becoming the top selling manga volume of 2008 as well as the second best-selling book in North America. During its release, volume 29 ranked #57, while volume 28 had dropped to #139. In April

2007, volume 14 earned Viz the "Manga Trade Paperback of the Year" Gem Award from Diamond Comic Distributors. The manga series also became the top manga property from 2008 in the United States with 31

volumes having been published during the chart. Searches for the word "Naruto" were #7 on the Yahoo! web search engine's list of the top 10 most popular search terms of 2008, and #4 from 2007. Responding to

Naruto's success, Kishimoto said in Naruto Collector Winter 2007/2008 that he was "very glad that the American audience has accepted and understood ninja. It shows that the American audience has good taste...

because it means they can accept something previously unfamiliar to them."

In February 2015, Asahi Shimbun announced that Naruto was one of nine nominees for the nineteenth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Kishimoto was also the winner of "Rookie of the Year" for the series in the

Agency for Cultural Affairs.

The series has received praise and criticism by several reviewers. A. E. Sparrow from IGN noted how some manga volumes focus only in certain characters to the point the number of fans increases. He also praised the

way that Kishimoto manages to make a remarkable combination of fighting scenes, comedy and good artwork. The anime and manga magazine Neo described Naruto's character as "irksome", but attributed the series'

"almost sickening addictiveness" to its level of characterization. Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network praised the designs of the characters, since every one shows their unique way of acting and appearance. He also

noted how even the "goofiest looking character" can act "damn cool" when he fights. However, Kimlinger noted that in some volumes there are several fights, so the plot is not able to develop, but he praised how each

of the battles were emotional. The series has also been praised for remaining enjoyable after several volumes by Javier Lugo from mangalife, who also praised the antagonists as well as the fights scenes from the

manga. Kishimoto's artwork was also commented by Lugo as it makes the story "dramatic, exciting, and just right for the story he's telling". The start of Part II has been praised in another review by Casey Brienza from

ANN. She noted how well the characters were developed as they had new appearances and abilities. Brienza also praised the balance between plot and action scenes allowing the readers the enjoy the volume. However,

she noted that it is not frequent that all the volumes have the same quality. Briana Lawrence from Mania Entertainment added that in Part II, the manga feels "adult" due to the growth from various of the characters.

However, Viz's translations were criticized for being "inconsistent" due to the change of some Japanese terms to English, while other words were left intact. The Spanish webcomic author Jesús García Ferrer created the

parody webcomic Raruto, based on Naruto. As of 2008 about 40,000 people in Spain read Raruto.

 _ **Anime:**_

In TV Asahi's latest top 100 Anime Ranking from October 2006, Naruto ranked 17th on the list. Naruto Shippuden has ranked several times as one of most watched series in Japan. The Naruto anime adaptation won the

"Best Full-Length Animation Program Award" in the Third UStv Awards held in the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. The first of the DVD compilations containing thirteen episodes, released by Viz was

nominated at the American Anime Awards for best package design. It also ranked as the third best-seller anime property from all 2008. Naruto was named "Best Full Animated Program" at the USTv Student's Choice

Awards 2009 held at the UST Medicine Auditorium on February 19, 2009. In ICv2's "Top 10 Anime Properties" from the first half of 2009, Naruto ranked as the second best anime franchise. The episodes from Naruto:

Shippuden have appeared various times in Japanese Anime TV Ranking. DVD sales from Naruto: Shippuden have also been good, having appeared several times in the Japanese Animation DVD Ranking. The freely

streamed episodes from Naruto: Shippuden have an average of 160,000 viewers a week. Naruto has also been 20th among shows and channels from Hulu in February from 2009. In Joost, it was first during the same

month. In February, Naruto: Shippuden was first among the animated shows on Joost while Naruto stayed second.

The Naruto anime was listed as the 38th best animated show in IGN's Top 100 Animated Series. Reviewers noted that the primary focus of the series was on the fighting since they consider that the fight scenes are

more dedicated than backgrounds. The music has also been noted to be a good match with the fighting scenes though it sometimes interferes with the dialogues. Martin Theron from ANN criticized the series for long

fights, but he also noted that most of them break the "stereotypical shōnen concepts." The soundtracks have been praised for enhancing the excitement and mood of the storytelling. Although Christina Carpenter of

T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews considered the characters from the series as "likeable", she commented that most of them did not surpass the "stereotypics" that appear in shōnen manga. She also considered Kishimoto "an

average artist at best" and derided the poor transition of his artistic style into animation. Despite this, the second reviewer from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, Derrick L. Tucker, admitted that when the animators were at

their best, they produced "artistic renderings that leave little to be desired on the part of fans of the manga", but concluded the animation was "a mixed bag". He also added that while fights were entertaining, due to

the large number of them, the plot takes time to continue.


End file.
